The Denver Nuggets enter into tonight’s game with a record of 12-23 after losing their last six games and nine of the past 10 overall. A promising start to the season has been soured largely due to injuries — forcing the Nuggets to play a new lineup seemingly each and every night.
Emmanuel Mudiay participated in shootaround and is good to go for tonight’s game vs. Minnesota. #Nuggets
— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) January 6, 2016
Emmanuel Mudiay will make his return to the lineup tonight, after missing the last 12 games with a sprained ankle. If Mudiay does indeed play tonight look for him to follow the steps of Jusuf Nurkic and play in a reserve role, as head coach Michael Malone has brought the big man off the bench in the past two games (after returning from offseason knee surgery). Tonight’s game has the feel of a must win for the Nuggets as the upcoming schedule is anything but kind.
The Minnesota Timberwolves also enter tonight’s game at 12-23. Minnesota has dropped their past three games and seven of the last eight. Like the Nuggets, an optimistic start to the season has been derailed by in the recent weeks. Things might have reached a boiling point on Monday when the Timberwolves lost 109-99 to Philadelphia — it was just the 76ers fourth victory of the season. The defeat caused interim head coach Sam Mitchell to skip yesterday’s practice in favor of a team meeting at half-court according to The Associated Press.
Minnesota boasts a roster filled with young and promising talent, however the team is yet to find the consistency needed to compete night and night out. The Timberwolves will be looking to avenge last month’s 112-100 home defeat to Denver.
When
Wednesday, Jan. 5th at 6:00 p.m. MST
Where
Target Center – Minneapolis, MN
Quick Shots – Nuggets
Jameer Nelson has performed better than expected since he took over the starting point-guard job, once Mudiay went down with injury. Nelson is averaging 8.7 points and 5.0 assists per game in 32 games played. The veteran has taken much better care of the ball than Mudiay did up until his injury. On the season Nelson is turning the ball over just 1.8 times per game compared to Muday’s 4.0. While that high number is somewhat expected as rookie point-guards typically struggle to adjust to the speed of the professional game, it will be interesting to see if the time off was beneficial to Mudiay’s development.
Nevertheless it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to ease the rookie back into the starting rotation and give him some more time to learn and observe a veteran like Nelson.
As mentioned above, the Nuggets have been forced to use seemingly every possible combination when it comes to starting lineups. In fact, Malone has started every player on the reason in at least one game this season except for Nurkic (and it is only a matter of time before he enters the starting lineup). The injury bug has certainly hit the Nuggets hard in the first half of the season.
Randy Foye is the only Nuggets player to appear in each of team’s 35 games. Speaking of Foye, do you remember when he hit this game winning shot against the Clippers in 2014? I was sitting in the nosebleeds that night and couldn’t believe it happened almost two years ago when I watched the video earlier today.
Quick Shots – Timberwolves
Karl-Anthony Towns is having a superb rookie season for Minnesota. Towns has started every game for the Timberwolves while averaging 15.9 points and 9.3 rebounds a night. In addition he currently has a 21.7 Player Efficiency Rating (PER), which is higher than any player on the Nuggets roster. But the rookie’s good work is not just limited to what he is currently doing on the hardwood. Towns has partnered with The Salvation Army to provide shoes for those less fortunate in the Twin Cities according to a press release on the Timberwolves website. It never gets old to see athletes helping out in their communities.
Kevin Garnett is in the twilight of his NBA career after returning to the Timberwolves in a trade with Brooklyn last season. “The Big Ticket” has taken on a mentorship role for a team with a young nucleus of Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio and Zach LaVine that is figuring out their identity. Garnett has started 30 games and is averaging 3.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 15.4 minutes on the season.
This is likely the final season of Garnett’s legendary career, which makes it very probable tonight is going to be his last game against the Nuggets as the two teams will not face each other again this season (unless they were to meet in the playoffs). In honor of the future Hall of Famer and his accomplishments, do yourself a favor and revisit one of the greatest postgame championship interviews in NBA history. There will never be another Kevin Garnett.
Final Shot
Denver will be looking to end their losing streak and finish off a season sweep of the Timberwolves. Minnesota will be motivated to bounce back from their embarrassing loss to Philadelphia and prevent the Nuggets from gaining their third victory of the season against them (season series sits at 2-1 in Denver’s favor). With both teams desperately needing a win it should be an exciting and hard fought game tonight in Minneapolis.
